07.28.2010
What Never To Eat After Your WOD!
These Two Foods Are Proven To Decimate
Your HGH (Human Growth Hormone) Levels
If Eaten Within Two Hours After You Workout
(BIG Disclaimer here …
For Information Purposes ONLY …
NOT For Diagnosis or Treatment Uses. Got It? )
Just in time for our cheat night, and what do I go and do?
I go and turn into a party-pooper and potentially spoil the fun of it all.
No, I haven’t really.
It’s just that, everywhere I turn, this is in the news.
This isn’t anything new to you guys who’ve experienced the negative side effects of blowing your diet “just because.”
But since this is all over the press releases right now, I thought this was as good a time as any to bring this to your attention.
Let’s jump right in, shall we?
First of all, what the heck is Human Growth Hormone, and why is it affected by what we eat after a workout?
For a definition of HGH, I’ll use Wikipedia:
Growth hormone (GH) is a peptide hormone secreted by the pituitary gland that stimulates growth and cell reproduction.
Growth hormone (GH l) is also called somatotropin (British: somatotrophin). The human form of growth hormone is known as human growth hormone, or hGH (similarly ovine growth hormone, or sheep growth hormone, is abbreviated oGH). GH can refer either to the natural hormone produced by the pituitary (somatotropin), or biosynthetic GH for therapy.
Moving on from Wikipedia to a more trusted source, let’s check in with the Mayo Clinic:
Growth hormone is produced by the pituitary gland — a pea-sized structure at the base of the brain — to fuel childhood growth and help maintain tissues and organs throughout life. Beginning in middle age, however, the pituitary gland slowly reduces the amount of growth hormone it produces. This natural slowdown has prompted an interest in the use of synthetic human growth hormone (HGH) to stave off the realities of old age. However, there’s little evidence to suggest human growth hormone can help otherwise healthy adults regain youth and vitality.
Look, we are all gaining momentum on Father Time, and will soon be much older than we are now.
And having our natural growth hormone wanting to fade away on its own due to age is troubling enough.
But to be screwing around with your HGH levels by flubbing up your diet after a WOD isn’t exactly in your best interest.
Now that I’ve gotten the definition of HGH out of the way, what’s the news?
Not so fast there, my dear Tribal buddy …
We’re not done yet.
Now let’s talk Insulin.
MedicineNet:
Insulin: A natural hormone made by the pancreas that controls the level of the sugar glucose in the blood. Insulin permits cells to use glucose for energy. Cells cannot utilize glucose without insulin.
You’ve heard of insulin, and you know it controls the glucose in your blood, but have you ever heard of glucagon?
This defination comes from Wiktionary:
Glucagon: (biochemistry) A hormone, produced by the pancreas, that opposes the action of insulin by stimulating the production of sugar.
And in the words of Phil Kaplan, a friend of ours:
When we spike blood sugar, we alter the insulin / glucagon balance. Insulin is a hormone that transports sugars from the bloodstream into muscles and into the liver, and the pancreas manufactures insulin based on the body’s momentary need.
The pancreas also manufactures glucagon, and while insulin is in essence a storage hormone, glucagon is a release hormone.
Put in simple terms, glucagon is the hormone that allows you to release fat, and in order to burn it you first have to release it from the adipose cell (fat cell) where it’s comfortably resting.
Any time you ingest a simple sugar (as in ice cream) or refined carbohydrates (as in the waffle cone) you spike blood sugar.
That means for the moment you have high blood sugar which stimulates the pancreatic hormonal shift. Insulin is cranked out at an amplified level, and in order to facilitate that insulin rush, glucagon production is diminished.
That means, if you consume simple sugars and refined carbs, you’re doing a pretty good job of locking in fat.
… So … according to several sources (three of which I’ll reference here) you should be very aware of what you put into your mouth after you do your daily WOD.
First Resource …
From http://www.howtobefit.com/limiting-refined-sugar.htm:
Limiting Refined Sugar After Workouts
by Phil Campbell - Ready, Set, Go! Synergy Fitness for Time Crunched Adults
Limiting refined sugar for two hours after training maximizes the benefits of
exercise-induced growth hormone. Why?
The answer to this question will be different for every individual. Here’s why.
First, we know that refined sugar in the diet makes the body increase extra insulin to combat the additional sugar in the blood. This increase in insulin causes an increase of another hormone called somatostatin. And somatostatin shuts down exercise-induced growth hormone released by high-intensity training.
“Somatostatin (SRIF) was discovered in 1973, in Roger Guillemin’s laboratory as a Growth Hormone (GH) inhibiting neurohormone,” (Somatostatin: a ubiquitous peptide, 1998, Epelbaum).
Researchers report that elevated insulin levels increase somatostain and this blunts the release of growth hormone. “In conclusion, our data indicate that in the obese, as in normal subjects, the GH response to GHRH is a function of insulin levels,“(Elevated insulin levels contribute to the reduced growth hormone (GH) response to GH-releasing hormone in obese subjects, 1999, Lanzi).
In another study, researchers report similar findings, “insulin exerts a negative effect on GH release,” (Evidence for an inhibitory effect of physiological levels of insulin on the growth hormone (GH) response to GH-releasing hormone in healthy subjects, 1997, Lanzi).
In other words, if someone does the high-intensity Sprint 8 Workout and increases their body’s natural supply of anti-aging, (and anti-MIDDLE-aging, weight reducing, muscle toning, bone density improving) exercise-induced growth hormone, and immediately after the workout, eats a candy bar full of refined sugar, this will defeat the purpose of high-intensity training.
Weight Loss Strategy
An important fitness strategy is to keep the body’s natural increase of growth hormone working for two hours synergistically targeting bodyfat after training. And this training benefit will be lost, if somatostatin shuts down HGH growth hormone.
How many carbohydrates can I eat and not increase somatostatin after training? This becomes the key question. And the answer has several factors involved current fitness level, age, and the most critical issue…how much body fat? Why?
Syndrome X is what medical researchers call the impact of “insulin resistance” (this is everyones worst fitness nightmare). The more someone is overweight, the more resistant to insulin the body becomes.
Syndrome X makes the body over react to dietary sugar and carbohydrates — even some high-quality, natural carbohydrates like fruit. When someone really overweight says, “everything I eat turns to fat,” they are telling the truth — and they are describing the impact of Syndrome X.
What this research means to you
It means that if you’re trying to lose bodyfat, you may not want to risk somatostatin release by limiting your sugar intake after an anaerobic, growth hormone releasing workout.
The take home
It means that if you’re trying to lose bodyfat, you may not want to risk somatostatin release, so limit your sugar intake after an anaerobic, growth hormone releasing workout.
Being overweight with excessive bodyfat, to a degree, makes the body a fat-producing machine. Adding muscle and losing bodyfat through high-intensity exercise will turn your body into a fat-burning machine.
Second Resource …
http://www.hghmagazine.com/2-habits-that-immediately-stop-your-natural-hgh-production/
#1 – Don’t Eat Sugar for Two Hours After Working Out
A high sugar meal after working out, or even a recovery drink (containing high sugar) after working out, will stop the benefits of exercise induced HGH.
You can work out for hours, then eat a high sugar candy bar or have a high sugar energy drink, and this will shut down the synergistic benefits of HGH. Even before working out, a high sugar meal will slightly impair HGH, but after training, consider your exercise-induced HGH release stopped dead in its tracks.
If you miss reaching HGH release during working out, you will still receive the calorie burning benefit from the workout. However, you’ll miss the HGH “synergy bonus” of enhanced fat burning for two hours after working out.
This is an extremely important fact to remember if you want to cut body fat and shed a few pounds.
The University of Virginia research team demonstrated that carbohydrates are burned during exercise in direct proportion to the intensity of training.
Fat burning is also correlated with intensity. However, the actual fat burning takes place after the workout, during the recovery.
This makes the “Synergy Window,” the 2 hour period after a workout, very important in maximizing HGH, once it’s released during exercise.
Research shows that carbohydrates starts the protein synthesis recovery process faster than without carbohydrates. There are several studies involving young cyclist who compete for several days back-to-back, and quick recovery is their priority, not maximizing HGH.
If you are middle-age and want all the benefits from exercise induced HGH, then apply this strategy.
#2 – Don’t Eat Carbohydrates 90 Minutes Before Going to Bed
Growth hormone status is especially dependent on sleep, because a major growth hormone surge occurs during the first 30-70 minutes after falling asleep. Disturbed or disrupted sleep can cause growth hormone output to be reduced or aborted.
Carbohydrates can disrupt AND disturb your nighttime HGH output.
Carbohydrates are a primary trigger for insulin. HGH and insulin do not like each other.
If you go to bed with carbohydrates in your belly this will raise your blood sugar which causes insulin to be secreted.
Studies show that fasting prior to sleep can heighten sleep-related growth hormone output. Therefore, based on all the evidence in both the sleeping and waking state, going to bed with a belly-full of carbs is hormonally unwise and may diminish, if not nullify, nighttime growth hormone release.
Also, allowing ample time after consuming carbohydrates before retiring to bed will help maximize nighttime growth hormone release. Therefore, to enhance growth hormone output, refrain from consuming carbohydrates within 90 minutes of going to bed.
Finally, the Third Resource …
http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2010/07/27/the-growing-promise-of-shorter-more-intense-strength-training-workouts.aspx
Did you know that what you eat directly after exercising – typically within two hours – can have a significant impact on the health benefits you reap from your exercise?
Consuming sugar within this post-exercise window, will negatively affect both your insulin sensitivity and your human growth hormone (HGH) production.
A recent study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that eating a low-carbohydrate meal after aerobic exercise enhances your insulin sensitivity. This is highly beneficial, since impaired insulin sensitivity, or insulin resistance, is the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes and a significant risk factor for other chronic diseases, such as heart disease.
In addition, as HGH Magazine explains, consuming fructose, including that from fruit juices, within this two-hour window will decimate your natural HGH production:
“A high sugar meal after working out, or even a recovery drink (containing high sugar) after working out, will stop the benefits of exercise induced HGH. You can work out for hours, then eat a high sugar candy bar or have a high sugar energy drink, and this will shut down the synergistic benefits of HGH.
… If you miss reaching HGH release during working out, you will still receive the calorie burning benefit from the workout. However, you’ll miss the HGH “synergy bonus” of enhanced fat burning for two hours after working out.
This is an extremely important fact to remember if you want to cut body fat and shed a few pounds.
The University of Virginia research team demonstrated that carbohydrates are burned during exercise in direct proportion to the intensity of training. Fat burning is also correlated with intensity. However, the actual fat burning takes place after the workout, during the recovery.
This makes the “Synergy Window,” the 2 hour period after a workout, very important in maximizing HGH, once it’s released during exercise.
… If you are middle-age and want all the benefits from exercise induced HGH, then apply this strategy.”
Fitness expert Phil Campbell, author of Ready, Set, Go! further explains how you can maximize your HGH production by limiting sugar intake for two hours post exercise, in this article on HowToBeFit.com.
Exercising one hour a week and getting the same results as traditional strength training might sound impossible. However, University of Florida orthopedics researchers have developed a system that may do just that, and as you will read in my comment below, the kind of exercise you perform can dramatically reduce the time you spend in the gym while still getting better results than you did before.
The system created by University of Florida researchers uses eccentric (negative) resistance training, which capitalizes on the fact that the human body can support and lower weights that are too heavy to lift.
According to UF Health Science Center:
“Through a system of motors, pulleys, cams and sensors it adds weight when a person is performing a lowering motion, and removes that weight when the person is lifting. As a result, the body starts seeing loads, resistance, and forces that it doesn’t normally see”.
Other scientists have found additional clues that explain how exercise reshapes and strengthens more than just your muscles.
It changes your brain too.
In the late 1990s, researchers proved that human and animal brains produce new brain cells, and that exercise increases the process. But precisely how exercise affects the intricate workings of your brain at a cellular level remained a mystery.
However, a number of new studies have begun to identify the specific mechanisms, and have raised new questions about just how exercise reshapes your brain.
In some studies, scientists have been manipulating the levels of bone-morphogenetic protein (BMP) in the brains of mice. The more active BMP becomes, the more inactive your brain stem cells become and the fewer new brain cells you produce. Exercise reverses some of the effects of BMP.
According to the New York Times:
“BMP signaling was found to be playing a surprising, protective role for the brain’s stem cells … Without BMP signals to inhibit them, the stem cells began dividing rapidly, producing hordes of new neurons.”
Come to think of it … maybe I am a party-pooper after all …
Comments are welcome.
